Notes on Going Virtual,
by Ray Grenier & George Metes

Going Virtual: Moving your organization into the 21^st century.
Ray Grenier & George Metes
Prentice Hall, 1995, Upper Saddle River, NJ

Notes by John Sharp, October 1996

VIRTUAL OPERATIONS - the integration of work processes with a ubiquitous electronic information infrastructure that enables the optimum teaming of world class competencies to create value. The era of teams of knowledge workers able to use electronic systems to support knowledge and information worldwide. Interactions are in real time and designed to use all available telecommunications facilities. Learning is continuous, collaborative, and acquired through the information infrastructure. (p.6)

Work is now in the electronic network, not in the office. The network becomes the place of work, of value creation, of communication, of management, and to some extent of social intercourse. Logging on is not just another activity, but a signal of your arrival in the electronic workplace. Networking is not an adjunct to the work at hand; it is the basic virtual work process.

Conditions for virtual teaming.

Design and develop certain beliefs, skills, and cultural foundations

• High communication required, therefore trust is needed.
  • The collective learning process can accelerate trust and communication among team members faster than any artificial process.
  • Learning is more satisfying if driven by a need or desire to develop competencies.
  • A drawback to most computer assisted training is that it reinforces the individual contributor model, not collaborative work and learning.

• Need an ability to work with a variety of people with differing competencies and specialties under stressful conditions.

• Communication must be regarded as WORK, not as support for work, or an adjunct to work.

• Communication must be designed - as complex as any project, just will not accidentally fall together.

The five points to the "star" of a virtual organization: Competency, Communications, Commitment, Concurrency, Collaboration.

Requirements for virtual teaming. A belief system that places:

• Trust over suspicion. Trust other stakeholders. They want the same results that you do.

• Communication builds trust, which in turn builds more communication.

• Knowledge sharing over secrecy

• Commitment to the end product over "doing my job."

• The job is not finished until everyone's work is done.

• Recognition and rewards are based on the results that the team produces, not on the activity level of any individual on the team. Every piece of the system must work for results to be achieved.

• Deep and evolving "domain" knowledge that will meet the expectations that the rest of the team has for this particular person and role.

• Skill in working with the electronic tools of the trade and with virtual operations.

• Experience from similar situations from which the beliefs, knowledge and skills have developed.

Another KEY BELIEF: Your job is to SEEK needed information and knowledge, not wait for it to come to you. The watchword of the 90s is INFORMATION ACCESS, not just flow or distribution.

When in doubt, share. Information and knowledge hoarding does not give power, but rather delays results.

When planning work, THINK COMPETENCIES, not location, not organization. Accept virtual organizations as a primary source of competencies.

A new competency: Knowing how to access needed competencies both inside and especially OUTSIDE the organization - knowing where it resides, and knowing how to get it into the value stream.

Boundary knowledge is critical - to allow the competent in one area to coordinate their results with others. For example, an electronic book published by simultaneous authoring and indexing and illustrating, etc., takes agreed on templates and understanding of the rules and constraints in order to work simultaneously. A complex project will require up front time to establish the required understandings about boundary conditions. A company skilled in these boundary interfaces has a competitive advantage in effectively using virtual teams.

• A new role - the "circuit rider" who physically travels from site to site making sure all concerns are being dealt with. This person carries the news, listens to complaints, takes on certain problem solving tasks, and generally keeps the network alive.

A formal leadership training program is essential for any organization making the transition to virtual organization. Virtual leadership topics include:

• Multiple leadership in virtual operations

• Leadership as managing a network of dependencies

• Leadership through decision and influence

• The leadership role in designing virtual operations

• Creating and sustaining virtual relationships

• Supporting virtual teams

• Stress management through communications

• Introducing virtual technologies in non-threatening ways

• Leading by example: teaming, communications, and continuous learning in virtual environments

• Keeping virtual teams focused

The figure slowly climbed toward the summit of the mountain, hand over hand, pulling up toward the guru's cave. The climber reached the top, fingers raw and clothes tattered. He beheld the master: long white hair, wearing a flowing robe, indeterminate age. The master sat in the lotus position and seemed totally detached from worldly concerns.

The pilgrim knew he could ask only one question. A question for which there were no answers in the books, the journals, or from consultants. He approached the master and asked: "Master, what is the secret of virtual operations?"

The master was quiet for a long time, considering this question. At last she spoke: "You could have sent e-mail." The Grenierian Chronicles. P. 99.

KEY VIRTUAL WORKER ATTRIBUTES

Visualize themselves in a virtual community. The network becomes the workplace, and communications and learning are as much a part of work as design and production are.

Believe in, understand, and use the communications protocols that structure their operating environment.

Good communication attributes: Create on-line templates to take the randomness out of routine communication. For example - on-line forms can help better manage setting up travel, meetings, or problem reports in collaborative settings. Can help with cross-cultural communications. Even phone protocols can be suggested.

Notes on Learning in a Virtual Organization

• System integration teams work with clients in computer conferences to collaboratively learn about the organization's situation and develop proposals.

• Continuous learning supplants learning events.

• The collective learning process can accelerate trust and communication among team members faster than any artificial process.

• Learning is more satisfying if driven by a need or desire to develop competencies.

• Consider tying a university into a virtual teaching situation. Might affect team building. "The virtual learning model provides a significant opportunities for universities to enter into virtual alliances with organizations, with industries to contribute to the design and delivery of learning.

• A drawback to most computer assisted training is that it reinforces the individual contributor model, not collaborative work and learning.

• Networked learning is not just some event (like a seminar) that happens off in some conference room twice a week. Rather it assumes communication paths, learning and teaching, among each pair of members in the group.

• Only if learning takes place in the same environment (the network) with the same tools (electronic communication) by learners performing work or work-like processes will the learning deliver the competency to work in virtual situations.

• Virtual learning requires shared beliefs, knowledge, skills, and processes to be successful.

• Notion of a computer conference to develop a client proposal. Capture and share the learning for the use of other groups.

• Check out WDF-Net, the World Design Forum, involving Dr. Ulf Fagerquist & Hans Gyllstrom, of AT&T GIS.
  • Knowledge is best acquired in context and through work.

• A triple-helix design of:
  • People - high levels of self-mastery, competency, and shared beliefs.
  • Processes - rational work
  • Technologies - networks, computer communications, applications, multimedia, hypemedia, object-oriented visualization systems, wireless communication and virtual reality

What is needed to get virtual learning integrated into an organization's work system is no different than any other critical stream in developing a virtual operation - commitment, planning, design, and development.

The purpose of virtual learning is to keep up with what you need to know and to develop the competencies needed for the future. Not for grades, certification, but for mastery.

For virtual learning to succeed, Virtual Learning must be part of one's work, not just something else to do.

Key questions to ask about virtual learning in an organization.

• Is there any training in place for virtual teaming???

• Are there any formal processes in place that focus on building, accessing, and preserving organizational knowledge and group intelligence?

• How is information identified as organizational knowledge and distributed throughout the organization? Determine if the flow is up, down and across organizational boundaries.

• Are we a network, a community? Do we take advantage of the electronic infrastructure to build on our value add?

• Do I think of problems as "team problems" or as "my problems" or as "their problem?"

• Do I look for team problems that could be alleviated through better communications, virtual team design, or learning?